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Thursday, 6 February 2003

The University of Adelaide Library has dramatically expanded its online presence with the recent acquisition of more than 16,000 new journals, magazines, newspapers and law reports, all in electronic format.

The expansion brings the total number of journals subscribed to by the Library to more than 24,000, with some 60% of these being available through the university network in electronic form only.

Electronic journal titles are part of the Library's plans for a "virtual" user environment, whereby users can access research material from their offices or home computers on a "24 x 7" basis.

University Librarian Mr Ray Choate says the addition of the new journals is a major boon for the University community.

"Research journals are essential for students and staff to keep up with the latest developments and thinking in their fields, and our acquisitions will promote the excellence of research, scholarship, learning and teaching at the University," he says.

"A great advantage of these carefully selected and negotiated electronic-only journal packages is that they give access to a much wider range of research journals than we could afford in print. Electronic journals also have the benefit of requiring no physical storage or maintenance. What is simply not affordable is to maintain services associated with print journals while at the same time building or buying systems to manage and make available their online equivalents.

"The benefit of the electronic journals packages is they integrate neatly with electronic indexing and abstracting services. The results of searches are automatically linked to the Library's catalogue so users know immediately if the Library holds the item located and can then 'click' to the journal title and to the desired article."

Included are most of the journals published by Elsevier and Kluwer, two of the world's major science, technology and medical journal publishers. The Group of Eight (GO8) leading research universities has jointly negotiated the Kluwer package. The overall package supports all disciplines at the University and has been achieved with the support and collaboration of the Executive Deans of Faculties.

Library users not affiliated with the University may access the electronic journals, with "walk-in" user access available at nominated terminals in the Barr Smith, Waite and Roseworthy Libraries.

For more information about the Library and its range of research journals, visit the library's website: http://www.library.adelaide.edu.au/